Archaeologists excavate the Fujia site, where researchers uncovered evidence of a matrilineal society, in Guangrao, Shandong Province, in 1995. Photo: COURTESY OF ZAN JINGUO

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For decades, the existence of prehistoric matrilineal societies has remained one of the most debated issues in anthropology and archaeology. Theoretical frameworks proposed by scholars such as Johann Jakob Bachofen, Lewis Henry Morgan, and Friedrich Engels laid out a logical structure for matrilineal systems, yet the absence of direct archaeological evidence long hindered further research.

Recent discoveries by Chinese archaeologists have provided compelling evidence of a Neolithic matrilineal society in eastern China, advancing our understanding of early social organization.

Lack of direct archaeological evidence 

As early as the mid-19th century, Swiss anthropologist Bachofen, in his seminal work Das Mutterrecht (Mother Right), first proposed that matrilineal organization was a universal developmental stage in the early history of human civilization. Based on his study of native American matrilineal clans and ethnographic data, American anthropologist Morgan systematically expanded Bachofen’s theory by analyzing kinship terminologies and constructing an evolutionary sequence from matrilineal to patrilineal social structures. 

Archaeologists, for their part, inferred the existence of prehistoric matriliny through settlement archaeology, examining burial goods associated with gender, patterns of residence, and the distribution of symbolic artifacts to reconstruct possible forms of social organization. Based on such research, Marx and Engels developed their historical materialist perspective on social evolution, identifying matrilineal clans as a defining feature of primitive communist society.

Guided by Marxist theory, Chinese archaeology undertook extensive efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to reconstruct prehistoric social organization, with major research projects centered on sites such as the Banpo settlement and the Yuanjunmiao cemetery, both associated with the Yangshao Culture (c. 5000–3000 BCE). The Banpo site, excavated under the direction of renowned archaeologist Shi Xingbang, was once considered a model example of a “matrilineal clan commune.”

However, Zhang Hai, a research fellow from the School of Archaeology and Museology at PKU, noted that despite mainstream scholars having posited that the Yangshao Culture represented an egalitarian matrilineal society and the Dawenkou Culture (c. 4300–2500 BCE) a stratified patriarchal one—interpretations that even made their way into history textbooks—the lack of direct archaeological evidence soon led to waning interest. 

A similar trend occurred in Western anthropological research, which also lost momentum due to the absence of definitive archaeological support for prehistoric matrilineal societies. Moreover, modern ethnographic studies have shown that matrilineal organization was typically linked to subsistence economies and low levels of population growth, and thus more likely an adaptive response to specific ecological and historical conditions than a universal stage in human development.

Instrumental ancient DNA technology

Unlike earlier hypotheses primarily based on archaeological findings—such as figurines, female-associated artifacts, ethnographies, and textual records—recent breakthroughs in ancient DNA technology have enabled researchers to reconstruct high-resolution kinship networks among ancient human remains, providing more robust evidence for studying prehistoric social structures. Was prehistoric matriliny a real phenomenon or merely a theoretical construct? The Fujia site—a late Dawenkou Culture settlement dating back approximately 4,750–4,500 years, located at the foothills of northern Shandong and the southern coast of the Bohai Bay—has significantly advanced this long-stagnant debate.

The Fujia site underwent three major archaeological excavations, in 1985, 1995, and 2021, respectively. In 2015, based on data from the first two digs, Professor Dong Yu from the School of Archaeology at Shandong University used first-generation ancient DNA sequencing to propose that the Fujia community was 90% likely to have been matrilineal. The findings were published in the international journal Human Biology. 

In 2021, a team from the SICRA—including Sun Bo, Zan Jinguo, and Li Zhenguang—carried out the third excavation, uncovering a northern burial section at the Fujia site. By integrating multidisciplinary analyses of both the northern and southern cemeteries in collaboration with PKU, Minzu University of China, and other institutions, the researchers provided definitive empirical proof that the Fujia site was indeed a matrilineal clan society.

Ning Chao and Zhang Hai from PKU’s School of Archaeology and Museology, along with Huang Yanyi and Pang Yuhong from the university’s Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center, jointly led an interdisciplinary study combining ancient DNA analysis and archaeology. Leveraging shotgun sequencing and capture enrichment techniques, the team successfully obtained whole-genome data from 60 individuals—14 from the northern cemetery and 46 from the southern burial section at the Fujia site.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which is inherited exclusively from the maternal line, showed striking homogeneity among the buried individuals. All 14 samples from the northern cemetery shared identical mtDNA sequences, while 44 out of 46 (95.65%) southern samples exhibited complete genetic consistency. In sharp contrast, paternal genetic markers displayed high heterogeneity. Based on these findings, researchers inferred that the Fujia site’s dual cemeteries belonged to a matrilineal clan society rather than a familial or kinship-based structure.

Reproducing matrilineal social operations

The Fujia site exemplifies a complex matrilineal clan structure. Through comparative genomic analysis of two burial areas, researchers identified a village composed of two distinct clans, establishing a prototypical model of prehistoric matrilineal organization for the international academic community. According to Zhang Hai, ancient DNA analysis not only uncovered the matrilineal structure but also reproduced a social system that operated some 4,750 years ago.

The discovery of a second-degree kinship pair buried across separate cemeteries provides direct genetic evidence for the practice of “matrilineal burial.” Both within and between the cemeteries, an exceptionally dense network of fourth-to-sixth degree relationships was identified, demonstrating that the two burial communities maintained long-term intermarriage and coexistence. This indicates the matrilineal burial system remained unchanged for at least 250 years. 

Notably, both adolescent and adult males were consistently buried in their natal clan’s cemetery—a burial practice characteristic of matrilineal societies that stands in stark contrast to the patrilineal custom of females being buried with their husbands.

Further analysis of the Fujia site revealed significant genetic isolation within this population. While runs of homozygosity in individuals indicate genetic bottleneck effects, no signs of frequent consanguineous marriage were detected. This points instead to long-term intermarriage between clans that gradually accumulated genetic similarity. Although the two matrilineal groups—northern and southern—may have accepted outside males, these individuals were not buried at the Fujia site, further corroborating a system of matrilineal exogamy. 

Taken together, these findings imply that matrilineal social structures were likely widespread in northern Shandong during the late Neolithic period, aligning with Engels’ depiction of a social landscape where matrilineal blood ties coexisted with communal social organization.

Enriching understanding of matriclan life

This groundbreaking study, integrating paleogenomics, stable isotope analysis, and archaeological evidence, not only provides the first confirmation of matrilineal social organization in the Neolithic Age, but the case study of the Fujia site has also enriched academic understanding of life in matrilineal communities.

The research team conducted a systematic investigation into the subsistence economy and spatial activity patterns of the Dawenkou Culture at Fujia, combining stable isotope data with archaeological findings. Environmental samples were collected within a 50-kilometer radius of the site to establish a regional strontium isotope baseline. Analysis revealed a highly localized lifestyle: All individual isotope ratios clustered within a narrow range that matched the Quaternary alluvial plain where the site is located and differed significantly from nearby geological units. 

This data distribution pattern clearly indicates that the Fujia community members lived stably within the alluvial plain environment surrounding the site over the long term. More refined spatial-scale analysis revealed that their activity range was limited to a radius of approximately 10 kilometers from the site, with data highly consistent with those of local freshwater shellfish and snail shells.

The stable isotope analysis conducted by Wang Xueye, an associate research fellow from the Center for Archaeological Science at Sichuan University, supports the Fujia group’s highly localized activities and limited social mobility, standing in sharp contrast to the widespread practice of long-distance exogamy among other Neolithic cultural groups in China during the same period.

Carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis further illuminated the community’s dietary structure. These millet-farming people, firmly rooted in their homeland, also relied on coastal resources to supplement their food supply. Testing of 52 human bone samples revealed carbon isotope ratios indicative of a diet dominated by C4 plants. Archaeobotanical data and nitrogen isotope values from human and pig remains confirmed that foxtail and broomcorn millet were the community’s staple crops. Pigs fed on these grains constituted their primary source of animal protein.

Additionally, nitrogen isotope ratios at the Fujia site were significantly higher than those at other contemporaneous Dawenkou Culture sites. Researchers speculate that this anomaly might stem from saline-alkali soil conditions created by elevated sea levels in the late Dawenkou period, following the mid-Holocene marine transgression. This hypothesis is supported by the presence of marine shellfish remains at the nearby Wucun site, suggesting that marine resources bolstered protein intake.

The Fujia site recreates a portrait of an egalitarian, unadorned matrilineal homeland. Spanning roughly 37 hectares, the settlement exhibited a marked delay in social stratification. Material culture analysis revealed low levels of wealth accumulation: Grave goods were modest, community members were relatively equal in status, and pottery showed only rudimentary craftsmanship, indicating minimal technological investment in handicrafts. High-value items associated with long-distance trade were rare, implying limited integration into regional exchange networks.

According to Zan Jinguo, this social formation, characterized by low differentiation, limited wealth accumulation, and simple handicraft production, closely aligns with the features of typical matrilineal societies observed in modern anthropological studies.

The Fujia site offers the first complete Neolithic model of matrilineal society reconstructed through comprehensive paleogenomic data. Zhang Hai believes that the findings provide a vital reference point for theorizing social development, facilitating future studies on the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, as well as private ownership, state formation, and the origins of civilization.

Sun Bo emphasized that Fujia offers a new interpretive framework for understanding early processes of social complexity. It further reveals that, prior to the widespread establishment of patriarchal structures, highly organized matrilineal social units had already emerged in the coastal regions of the lower Yellow River basin, laying a crucial foundation for the origins of Chinese civilization.

Edited by CHEN MIRONG